clé de voûte
\kle də vut\
The verdict
“clé de voûte” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Claveau situé au milieu d'une voûte et servant à maintenir les autres pierres.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | clé de voûte |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \kle də vut\ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “clé de voûte” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for clé de voûte is 12 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \kle də vut\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for clé de voûte, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is clé de voûte, spelled C-L-É- -D-E- -V-O-Û-T-E.
Definition
- 1Claveau situé au milieu d'une voûte et servant à maintenir les autres pierres.
- 2Partie principale, ou personne centrale sur laquelle repose une affaire pour sa réussite ou son échec, dont tous les autres aspects dépendent.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "clé de voûte"?
What does "clé de voûte" mean?
How do you pronounce "clé de voûte"?
What language does "clé de voûte" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “clé de voûte”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is C-L-É- -D-E- -V-O-Û-T-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \kle də vut\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.